I will never give in to Miss Death

"After catching a small animal like this, what do people do with it?"

I controlled the character to put "Ibrahimovic" into a cardboard box: "It doesn't look very fierce, does it?"

"Catching animals... also has a certain chance of failure. You succeeded this time..."

Xiongxiong was silent for a long time. "Some pets can improve the level of the house or increase the favorability of the neighbors. I am not sure now, but it will definitely not be useless. Maybe this little guy looks cute, but his actual combat power is equal to that of two huskies?"

It seems that the two Huskies don’t have much fighting power, right?

“Then I roughly understand how this game is played.”

Seeing that the experience was almost over, I returned the laptop to Xiong Xiong: "I can feel that its prospects are very scary if it really develops."

There are no daily tasks, everyone is equal, it has a certain connection with the real world, it is officially operated, and it integrates the concept of the metaverse...

No wonder the company of Xiongxiong's family is willing to change itself to cooperate with people here.

Generally speaking, as long as the operation and promotion of this kind of game are not too drastic, it will be easy to become popular and will definitely boost the local economy.

"I'll go downstairs to see Gabriel and the others."

After eating the sticky rice and the small cake that Xiongxiong gave me, I took the plates to the dishwasher on the first floor to wash them, and entered the basement from the entrance next to the cat’s living area.

It is still the cyberpunk-style e-sports area in my memory, and the sky is still full of neon lights.

What’s different is that this place is already crowded with people. These customers are either drinking milk tea and watching professional players play games, or sitting in front of the computer to experience the “copy” of the new game “Age of Aquarius”.

"Why am I here in a place full of lava again? Hey, can I modify the body of this robot? Its heat resistance is too poor."

"What if you go to a place covered in ice next time?"

"Keep on transforming!"

"Where does the money come from?"

"Do quests, or go on adventures... The closed beta is already so awesome, if this game were to go public, with hundreds of thousands of players and such a huge demand, it would be extremely popular."

"Hundreds of thousands? My conservative estimate is three million players."

The feeling I get from the e-sports area on the first floor of the basement is clearly different from that of the customers who eat upstairs.

Because they really came here to play games, whether Xiaomo or I passed by these people, we would not be greeted with exclamations like "Nuoer is so cute" or "Do you have any handmade glutinous rice made by Nuoer?" like the ones on the first floor.

"It is said that this is the only store in the country that fully supports Age of Aquarius so far? They will also open a VR area there when the time comes."

"Don't you think this place is a little small? It would be crowded with 70 or 80 people, but the environment is really nice."

"It looks like the Age of Aquarius is really going to push the world into the Age of Aquarius. I've seen the plans for Kamihama City, and combined with this game... it's pretty scary, brother."

Listening to the sighs of various players, I found Su Yunjin who was debugging something in front of a computer and handed him a drink: "How is the situation here? Do you need any help?"

"You can see that there are too many people."

Su Yunjin raised his head and said, "You don't need to help. Gabriel has done a great job. You just need to do the work upstairs."

"Also, I want to discuss something with Miss Sikong Yue. The number of people coming here now is somewhat beyond my expectations. We underestimated these players..."

Su Yunjin took out a document from the small bag next to the computer desk and handed it to me.

"Show this to Ouyang Xue and tell her that we are planning to open a branch of the coffee shop on the commercial street. Ouyang Xue will go there, and Nuoer, you will take over as the store manager here."

"..."

……

No. 297 Are you willing to solve the permutations and combinations on the blackboard?

"open a branch?"

When I handed Su Yunjin's file to Ouyang Xue, she was eating in the staff lounge and was stunned for a moment. Then she took the file and looked at it carefully for a while, then said, "I know this store above. It was supposed to be turned into an Internet cafe."

“Is it still profitable to open an Internet cafe now?”

"It's hard to say. In this era, opening an Internet cafe is a model of elite elimination. Those who run well can still make money, but those with dirty and messy environments, poor service and extremely high prices will easily be eliminated, unless there is no competition around."

Ouyang Xue frowned slightly: "It seems that there are really not many Internet cafes around us?"

I replied, "But our location is also remote."

In most cases, the location of an Internet cafe is the most important.

Now everyone has a computer. If an Internet cafe is still opened near a slightly upscale residential area, it will go bankrupt sooner or later. Anyone with a little bit of common sense will open an Internet cafe in a place where there are many students, especially college students.

The management of Internet cafes in Kamijuma City is quite strict. The phenomenon that you can just swipe a "temporary card" to turn on the computer is very rare now. So it doesn't make much sense to open one near a middle school where you don't even have an ID card. It can only be near a university, and it has to be an ordinary university. Well-known universities or even first-class universities don't seem to have much business.

But I remember hearing someone say online that it’s not feasible to open Internet cafes near schools nowadays, they have to be opened near factories.

The darker and more exploitative the sweatshop is, the better the Internet cafe business will be.

People who go to work in factories generally do not have personal computers, and it is even more impossible for them to bring their own computers into the factory dormitories. People work more than ten hours a day in the factory, and they are numb. When they finally get a day off, of course they will look for Internet cafes to have fun.

At that time, I saw that the poster of that post said that there were usually a lot of people in the Internet cafe near his factory, and it was always packed on weekends and holidays. Sometimes you would go in and stand there for two hours without getting a computer. Some people even came to the Internet cafe at three or four in the morning when there were most people, turned on the computer and stayed up all night, and then came back to play the next day.

There are no computers in the Internet cafes near the factory every day, and the Internet cafes a little further away are on the verge of bankruptcy. This world is so wonderful.

Anyway, I am not very optimistic about opening an Internet cafe in the newly built commercial street in Minaminagi District. It is okay for a coffee shop that mainly sells snacks and e-sports as a supplement, but its revenue mainly comes from Internet fees... Unless it can survive until the commercial street in Minaminagi District is fully built in the future and the flow of people increases dramatically, it will be easy to go bankrupt.

"I don't quite understand..."

Putting down the documents, Ouyang Xue looked a bit troubled: "What is Su Yunjin thinking about again? We haven't finished dealing with the things here... Did he say when he would let you be the store manager?"

"I didn't say it."

I shook my head: "He just told me to be ready. It may only take two months..."

As I was talking, I noticed something unusual about Ouyang Xue: "Sister Ouyang, that..."

"Well, what happened?"

Ouyang Xue raised her head, looking a little guilty: "Is there anything else?"

"Sister Ouyang, do you...have a fever?"

I looked a little uncertain: "I feel your temperature is a little high."

If it were my normal self, I might not even notice this.

But at this point I'm in genie mode.

In Elf Mode, almost all of my body's senses have been enhanced, and I can clearly feel the changes in the surrounding temperature. When I helped Xiaomo fry the rice dumplings before, I also used this keen perception to judge whether the food in the pot was 90% or 100% cooked, and to judge by the smell whether the fried side had reached a golden color.

At this time, there were only Ouyang Xue and I in the entire staff lounge, so I could vaguely sense that her body temperature was slightly higher than the standard of ordinary people.

It should be a low-grade fever.

"Ah... can you even discover this?"

Ouyang Xue was a little surprised: "No... It's nothing, just a low-grade fever, I'll be fine after taking some medicine."

"Sister Ouyang, you are still like this."

I took a step forward with some dissatisfaction and tried to touch her forehead: "How much is it exactly?"

"Thirty-eight degrees. Two degrees. Just measured."

Ouyang Xue smiled bitterly: "It was mainly because the construction workers came to renovate the basement last night, and I helped them move things, so I was a little late."

"How late?"

"A little more."

"Isn't Elodie on the evening shift?"

"The little girl has delicate skin and tender flesh..."

Ouyang Xue avoided my gaze and said, "I'll be quicker."

“You don’t act like a manager at all.”

I looked around: "Why do you have a fever? Do you have a cold? Have you been to the hospital?"

"It's probably just a minor cold."

"should?"

"Viral cold."

At this time, Yin Xiamo walked in from outside: "Yesterday, the temperature difference between day and night was large, and there was a sea breeze at the beach. I didn't pay attention to keeping warm when the temperature was low, and I caught a cold from the wind. The cold virus took advantage of the opportunity to get in. Take some medicine."

"I'm really fine..."

"It's irresponsible to your customers to go to work when you have a cold. You must have just had a fever."

Yin Xiamo said in an unquestionable tone: "Sister Ouyang, if you don't take a rest, Nuoer and I will tell Li Chen about this."

"you……"

Ouyang Xue felt choked for a moment: "Why did you tell that boy?"

"The Internet cafe on the commercial street has probably dealt with most of the situation. I guess Su Yunjin transferred you there because he hopes you can relax for a while."

Yin Xiamo did not comment: "Does he know that you helped here last night?"

"You know, those workers were called here by Su Yunjin."

"look."

Yin Xiamo gave me a "that's it" look: "We've found the reason why Sister Ouyang was exiled. Su Yunjin is also an incompetent boss."

"I...was always like this when I was a kid. I caught a cold five or six times a year. At most, the fever would last for two or three days and then it would go away. It was no big deal. I've gotten used to it."

Ouyang Xue smiled and said, "Then Nuo'er, please go to the kitchen and get some hot water. I'll drink some water and take a rest for a while. I'll listen to you and not go to work today."

"That's about right. If you're not feeling well, don't try to be strong."

I turned around and said, "Sister Ouyang, please read the report first. I will go downstairs to get some hot water."

No wonder the underground cyberpunk e-sports zone, which was only 70% to 80% completed, reached such a high degree of completion in one night. It turned out that after we went back last night, Su Yunjin asked someone to come and decorate it.

I feel like it’s a tradition for coffee shops to do renovations late at night.

Ouyang Xue was the same. She couldn't bear to see the workers working so hard and had to personally participate...

Let me find the hot water here...

After going downstairs, I went straight to the kitchen and looked around for a while.

In this weather, although there are free water dispensers in coffee shops for hot water, most of them are slightly warm "warm water", which is far from the level of "making cold medicine".

The temperature today is over 30 degrees. Normally, no one would come to the coffee shop specifically for hot water, so we didn't boil much water. Only the kitchen had hot water over 80 degrees, which was kept warm in a kettle for use.

"found it."

Taking out the thermos from the kitchen, I unplugged it with a "pop", observed the temperature of the water inside, and after confirming that it was hot, I walked out with the kettle.

"Ding Dong! Welcome!"

Just as I was passing by the entrance of the first floor of the coffee shop with the kettle, the door was suddenly pushed open and two familiar little figures walked in from outside.

It was Li Denghua and her new good friend Zhou Xiaofei.

Li Denghua was still wearing the same gorgeous Lolita skirt as usual, a pair of pantyhose with Gothic cross patterns on her slender legs, small Lolita round-toed shoes on her feet, and an umbrella and a small bag in her hands.

What surprised me was that Zhou Xiaofei seemed to have dressed up deliberately today. She was no longer wearing the elementary school uniform, but a little dress similar to Li Denghua's, with a pair of flat shoes and lace socks. Her originally dark face seemed to have become whiter, and she tied two ponytails. She was a lot cuter than I remembered.

However, it was a bit strange that after entering the room, Li Denghua kept her head down the whole time, as if she didn't dare to look at me.

Zhou Xiaofei, who was beside her, held the corner of her clothes the whole time and led the girl towards me.

It’s like... leading a prisoner?

"Hey, Sister Nuoer is right here."

Seeing me, Zhou Xiaofei walked over to me while grabbing the hem of Li Denghua's skirt and said, "Just like we agreed before, you have to be serious, stand still, and look at my face when you speak."

"That's how my grandma taught me when I broke something at home."

What are these two little guys doing?

I was holding the kettle and was a little confused about the situation for a moment.

"Sister Nuoer."

While I was puzzled, Zhou Xiaofei at the door brought Li Denghua to me and said, "Denghua, I have something to tell you."